


To my Euterpe

by dongyeomx



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Multi, New York City, Side Ships, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 02:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21348889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dongyeomx/pseuds/dongyeomx
Summary: Wanting to distance himself from other people’s expectations, a wanna-be musician Han Jisung heads to New York to find himself and finally live his truth. He’s on a search for inspiration and a certain Lee Minho might be a huge help.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

Part 1: Party

What are the ways of being aware of the passing time? There are many: spending one’s day in a dentist’s waiting-room, glancing at the clock every ten seconds while dozing off at work, hoping this time it would show something different. Or, in Jisung’s case, going to a party where you don’t know anyone besides the host.

It had already been a long day for him — catching a bus from his hometown to Atlanta first thing in the morning, sitting around at a busy airport for several hours, and then finally flying all the way to New York. Luckily, Chan picked him up from the airport so he didn’t have to splash out on a taxi to his friend’s apartment; Jisung was already short on money because of the plane ticket alone, so he was grateful his friend was letting him stay at his place as well.

However, crashing the couch meant Jisung would have no choice but to participate in a party that his friend decided to throw on the very day of his arrival. He’d much rather just go to sleep but he obviously couldn’t do that, so instead he decided to get himself together and try to look at least a little presentable. He did not want to embarrass himself in front of Chan’s friends, after all. He tried to style his hair to make it look effortless but put together in the same time. It wasn’t easy, especially considering the colour itself was a bit of a mess— it was mostly blonde, with some hints of purple here and there. He ended up creating a middle part and let his slightly-too-long hair flow down his face, making his chubby cheeks appear a bit less plump.

He went for the most going-out-ish outfit he could find in his backpack: a black long sleeve shirt, jeans and his favourite pair of shoes — matt platform doc martens, which made him look taller than he actually was.

One thing he did not expect — nights can get pretty cold in this part of the country, even in early May. Especially at midnight, when one sits on a fire escape with a slight headache from the loud EDM music pulsating throughout the building. Nevertheless, he did not feel like going back inside, even despite the cold wind making him shiver every now and then.

Jisung searched the pockets of his jeans; in the left one he found his phone. He took it out, unlocked the screen and gave it a quick glance.

_Two missed calls: Mom_

_Three unread messages: Mom_

Jisung sighed and threw his head back. _‘I can’t deal with this tonight’,_ he thought as he put his phone back to his left pocket.

He searched the other pocket and luckily he found what he was looking for — a pack of smokes, along with his favourite lighter—small holographic one, which he had bought at a gas station a year back, when he first started smoking. He unwrapped the layer of see-through foil covering the box and _flipped a lucky_. None of his friends back home did this anymore, but he always subconsciously turned one cigarette upside down before putting it back into the box. He wasn’t superstitious so it didn’t really mean anything to him, but it was kind of a fun habit. The ‘lucky’ cig from his previous pack didn’t bring him any luck but who knows —maybe the next one would.

He randomly chose another smoke and put it in his mouth.

By now Jisung was already an experienced smoker; inhaling the chemicals didn’t make him cough anymore, he was never dizzy because of it. Actually, it was quite the opposite—- it was almost easier to breathe when he smoked. It helped him calm down and concentrate.

Jisung let out a cloud of smoke though his lips and looked around; Chan’s place had a pretty nice view. It was located on the seventh floor of a nine story apartment building in the outskirts of Manhattan. He could see the silhouettes of some skyscrapers located in the heart of the Island, but the nearest surroundings looked more like a typical big city neighbourhood, with some neon signs and people stumbling out of bars down the road.

He remembered a quote from some movie, that you should never feel lonely in New York, because there is always at least one other person who’s not asleep just like you, and that thought made Jisung smile for a quick second.

But that smile quickly turned into a bitter-sweet one.

Even though technically he was at a party with a couple dozens of other people right behind the corner, he did in fact feel alone. Maybe it was stupid, but Jisung wasn’t used to meeting new people. Back at home in Georgia he used to hang out the same group of friends all throughout high school up until going to University. Then it got a bit complicated, but it wasn’t the time in his life he liked thinking about.

Jisung took another puff, closed his eyes and slowly released the smoke. He sat like that for a while, before he heard a voice right next to him, on the other side of the open window.

‘Fuck.’

He opened his eyes and turned his head in that direction.

There was a boy around his age leaning over the windowsill, with a sour expression on his face. He looked pale and a bit weak, like he could collapse any second.

Jisung got a bit concerned.‘…Everything okay?’

The dark haired boy glanced at him with a visibly embarrassed look, he nodded. ‘Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit dizzy. The air in there is kinda… stuffy’, he said, pointing back inside with his thumb.

Jisung definitely agreed. Before he went outside he had sat on couch for a bit and tried to socialize with Chan’s guests, but soon enough he felt hot, and consequently very sleepy, so he had to cool down outside. Just like the boy standing in front of him, seemingly so.

The brunette bit his lip and hesitantly continued. ‘I wanted to get some fresh air, but I don’t know anymore… I don’t exactly enjoy heights.’

Jisung chuckled at the statement, but still proceeded to put out the cigarette against the railing. The boy seemed actually nervous looking down the fire escape, and Jisung found his white-as-a-sheet face very worrying.

‘Come here, you look like you could use some air’, he stood up, took a step closer to the window and reached out his hand. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be right here next to you.’ Said Jisung, while smiling reassuringly.

The other seemed unsure at first, but eventually he gave up and followed Jisung’s suggestion. He grabbed Jisung’s hand firmly and started carefully going through the open window, holding his black leather jacket in his other hand.

He didn’t let go even when Jisung had already seated him carefully onto one of the steps. His hands were trembling.

Jisung squatted in front of him, with his knees between the other boy’s wide-spread legs. He felt as if he was invading the other’s personal bubble, but the boy didn’t seem to complain. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Minho.’ The boy looked him in the eyes for a second, then lowered his gaze.

‘Hi Minho, I’m Jisung’, said the blonde boy. ’Nice to meet you, despite these kinda odd circumstances.’ He chuckled. ‘Now tell me, how are you feeling? Do you want me to go inside and find someone?’

Jisung didn’t know why he felt so legitimately worried for the newly met boy, but since he didn’t enjoy the party anyway he figured he could at least help out someone who was clearly in need.

Minho shook his head. ‘No, there’s no need for that. Besides, my friends are dancing in the middle of that huge crowd in the living room, you wouldn’t be able to find them anyway.’

Jisung hummed. ‘Right. For now just try to breathe slowly and maybe don’t look down, that would probably slow down the recovery.’

Minho nodded. ‘Trust me, it’s the last thing I want to do right now.’ He reassured. ‘But the cold air is already making me feel better, My head is not spinning anymore.’

‘Phew’, Jisung released a sigh of relief. Then he suddenly got an idea. ‘Hey, maybe I’ll just bring you some water?’

The other boy nodded. ‘Mmm, yes, if that’s not a problem…’

‘Not at all. I’ll be back in a moment.’ Said Jisung before standing up and leaving Minho alone on the fire escape. He looked back once he made it through the window —Minho threw his head back and took a deep breath, making his chest rise up. His long, messy dark hair fell back, revealing his pale forehead in its full glory.

Jisung caught himself looking at him for a few too-many seconds, so he cleared his throat and finally headed to the kitchen.

He found it extremely hard not to bump into anyone on his way — there were drunk people everywhere, either loudly talking in small groups, swaying to the music or drunkly staggering through the apartment.

The boy managed to make it through the main dancefloor and entered the corridor. He still hadn’t got used to the apartment and how huge it was, so he had to find the kitchen through trial and error.

He peeked inside one of the rooms on his way, which seemed to be Chan’s bedroom and saw him making out with some girl. Jisung was caught off guard but he kept his chill and delicately closed the door before any of them saw him invading their privacy.

The next door he came across was luckily the kitchen. There were a few people there sitting at the counter tops, sipping their drinks and talking.

Jisung walked up to the fridge and felt overwhelmed. There were several bottles of vodka, expensive-looking bottles of champagne and whiskey of a famous brand.

_‘Gosh, Chan might as well be Great Gatsby’,_ Jisung thought.

Luckily, on the side shelf of the fridge he found a well-chilled bottle of mineral water, exactly what he needed.

When he got back to Minho, the boy was sitting in an almost exact same position as before, now also fanning his face with his hand. He got startled when he heard Jisung stepping outside and joining him on the metal surface of the fire escape. He looked like a scared cat when he fluttered his long eyelashes in a tic. Despite his eyes being like two shiny onyxes staring into Jisung’s soul, the little wrinkles around them signalled that the other boy was tired.

There wasn’t much space left so Jisung sat down on the floor in front of Minho, with his back leaning against the rails. They slightly dug into his skin, but he didn’t mind.

He handed the bottle over to Minho, who nodded his head in a form of a silent thank you. Jisung wrapped his arms round his legs, rested his head on his knees and inquisitively watched as the other boy gulped down almost all of it in one go.

Minho wore a black turtleneck, but when he threw his head back his throat got revealed. Jisung couldn’t help but notice how prominent his adam’s apple was, and how attractive it made him look.

Minho closed the bottle, put it beside him on the step that he was seated on and finally looked back at Jisung.

Once their eyes met, Jisung got a bit shy and smiled awkwardly. ‘Does that happen to you often?’

‘No. I mean…. I used to be fine, but lately I’ve been having some troubles falling asleep, and it makes me feel a bit like a zombie.’

Jisung sighed and nodded. ‘ Been there, done that. Insomnia’s a bitch.’

Minho cracked a smile for the first time. ‘Where’s the lie.’

Jisung could tell that he was already feeling better. His hands rested comfortably on his knees, his fingers were not nervously fidgeting anymore.

The boy suddenly looked at Jisung with a sudden interest in his eyes. ‘And why are _you_ here?’

Jisung opened his eyes wide. ‘Here, as in, this fire escape?’

Minho nodded. ‘Yup. Why are you sitting here alone?’ He leaned back and supported himself by putting his elbows on the step behind him. His face was slowly gaining back its colour.

Jisung shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don’t know. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone tonight.’

‘…And then you decided to go to a party?’ Minho’s lips curved upwards as his head tilted to the left.

‘I had no choice to be honest, I’m staying at Chan’s. You know, the host.’ Jisung tilted his head in the same direction as Minho, mimicking his move.

Minho chuckled. ‘I know, he’s like my best friend. But how do you guys know each other? I don’t think he ever mentioned you.’

Jisung wasn’t surprised to hear that. Today was actually the first time he and Chan met physically, when the older boy picked him up from his flight. ‘We actually met over the Internet.’

Minho raised his eyebrow and gave the other a curious look. ‘But not like, on Tinder or anything, right?’

Jisung furrowed his eyebrows. ‘What? Of course not. Why would you think that??’ He blurted out nervously, not expecting him to bring up dating all of the sudden.

Minho exhaled through his nose, as if he’d found Jisung’s reaction amusing. ‘Chan’s been single for a while, and he’s been casually talking to people here and there. When I first saw you I thought you could have been one of his potential dates, but then it didn’t go exactly according to plan since you ended up being emo on a fire escape.’

Jisung opened his eyes wide. ‘Do I look emo to you??’

‘Not really, maybe it’s just your boots, and the fact that you sit here with those sad, cat eyes’, explained Minho, pouting to mimic Jisung’s face.

Jisung thought just now that it was actually Minho who looked like the cat from Shrek. 

‘I’m an emo wanna-be, at best’. The boy calmed down his nervousness a little. ‘But going back to Bang Chan, we actually met a long time ago through a music forum. We’ve been keeping in touch with each other, but today we met in real life for the first time. And by the way, I think Chan _did_ get himself a date, considering I almost walked in on him and some girl earlier.’

‘Oh, that’s good’, Minho released a sigh of happiness. ‘Maybe he’ll finally shut up about being single.’

He glanced at Jisung hesitantly for a moment, visibly wanting to learn more about the other boy but not sure how to approach him. After a while he finally spoke up. ‘Soo, you’re also a producer?’

‘Me?’, asked Jisung, pointing at his chest. ’No, I wish. I just write lyrics sometimes, I’ve tried composing a few songs but they’re nowhere near as good as Chan’s. I-…‘, Jisung looked down hesitantly. ’I actually came here to give it one last try.’

Minho looked puzzled. ‘Care to elaborate?’

‘It’s a long story’, Jisung shrugged.

‘I’ve got plenty of time’, answered Minho, reassuringly.

‘Sure you want to listen to some random guy’s stories right now?’ Jisung raised his eyebrow, peaking at the other boy from underneath his eyelashes.

‘I want to listen to you talking, it’ll make me feel better. It already kinda did.’ Insisted Minho.

It seemed true; by now the boy looked almost completely normal, as if none of that even ever happened. The only thing that didn’t change was the sign of tiredness in his eyes, but Jisung didn’t think he could help with that.

Jisung turned his head and stared sightlessly into the darkness, battling with his thoughts. He had never really talked about it with anyone before, about what he wants to do.

None of his friends back home knew him at all; they were good company, but didn’t pay much attention to Jisung as a person. He was always that mood maker whom everyone liked, but nobody was there for him when he was feeling down.

But he had music. Thing was, his songs seemed too intimate to share with anyone from his surroundings. He put his whole heart and soul in his lyrics. All his insecurities, hopes, regrets. It was a diary, a bucket list, a confession.

Music felt like his only way to express himself. But nobody apart from Chan knew. Well, and his parents, unfortunately.

But this guy… he seemed actually interested and genuine in his intentions. And fuck, Jisung desperately needed someone to talk to. Somebody who’d understand.

Because thinking about it now, did anyone ever understood him, or really wanted to listen?

‘Okay’, he said as his turned his eyes back to the dark haired boy, who has been staring at him the whole time. He decided to give it a try and see how it goes. At this point he really needed to get some things out of his system. ‘Get comfy, cause this is gonna take a hot minute.’

Minho chuckled and fidgeted on the metal step he was sat on. ’This is as good as it gets. Now I’m all ears.’

Jisung subconsciously smiled for a quick second, but then immediately cleared his throat. ‘I’m really into music. I’ve always been, but I’ve always kept it to myself.’

‘Why?’

‘I come from a really small town near Atlanta’, Jisung explained.’ It’s kind of a shithole, if I’m being honest. Personal suburban nightmare’, blonde sighed. ‘Everyone pries in other people’s lives and seizes every opportunity to bring others down… it’s kinda that crab mentality.’

Minho nodded, indicating that he knew exactly what Jisung was referring to. ‘When one crab tries to escape the box, the other crabs pull him down so nobody escapes. Yeah, I’ve seen that happen a lot amongst people.’

‘I feel like it might be engraved in human DNA’ Jisung remarked with a certain sadness in his tone. ‘Either way, that’s partially why I had always been too scared to show my music to anyone. If I decided to stick out from the crowd people would eat me alive. Not that I’m that much of an persona, I know I’m boring as shit. But you know, I just didn’t want to be bullied.’

Minho nodded.

‘That’s why I never told anyone. Well, apart from Chan. He’s heard my tracks and always encouraged me to post them somewhere.’

‘I’m guessing you didn’t?’ Minho inquired with a hint of empathy in his voice.

‘It’s not that easy. I’ve always been self-conscious. I don’t think I could have handled anybody laughing at me, you know? But eventually’, Jisung said hesitantly. ‘I showed it to my parents.’

‘Oh’, Minho raised his eyebrows. ‘and how did it go?’

Jisung played with his fingers out of a nervous habit. ‘It had both a positive and a negative result. On a good note, I decided to take music more seriously because quite frankly, that’s what gives me purpose’. He confessed, holding his hand to his chest. ‘A negative, well… I might teeechnically be homeless now.’

The other boy looked confused, with his furrowed eyebrows and eyes fixed at Jisung, anticipating an explanation. ‘You might be what??’ Why?’

‘Maybe I just picked a bad time for telling them’, He admitted with a sad smile plastered on his face. It was not an easy topic for him, but telling his story to a stranger made it a bit easier, like he was talking to a therapist. ’You see, yesterday I’ve finally decided to drop out from University. I thought that if I told my parents that I wanna do music instead they’d take it better, but I just made it worse. My dad said, and I quote, ‘you’re good for nothing, you probably wouldn’t manage to finish your studies, anyway. I’m ashamed of bringing up such a failure’. Jisung recited with an expression of sadness mixed with irritation. ‘I was so shocked I think I’ll remember these words for the rest of my life.’

‘Ouch’, Minho hissed. ‘I know he’s your father, but what he said to you is just _ridiculous_.’ He genuinely seemed enraged as he enunciated the last word.

‘I mean, he’s not that much wrong. But still, it’s not a nice thing to hear from the people who were supposed to always believe in you. This was the last straw. I’ve spent last night discussing it with Chan an he told me I could stay at his place for a while before I cool down and stuff. So I booked a flight, left without anyone seeing me, and here I am’. Jisung concluded, smiling weakly at the other boy.

Minho fell silent for a moment. ‘What about your mom? What did she say?’

The blonde sighed. ‘That’s the part I’m most mad about. She said nothing. She acted as if it didn’t involve her at all. She always wants to appeal to my dad and agrees with him no matter what, even if it means giving up her son’, Jisung scoffed. ‘She’s send me a few texts once she realised I was gone but I don’t even wanna read them.’

‘I see’, Minho nodded with a sad expression on his face. ‘I’m curious though, so don’t mind me asking- what did you study, and why did you drop out?’

‘Engineering. Just like my dad’, Jisung smirked and leaned over, so he could almost whisper in Minho’s ear. ’You can probably tell where this is going.’

Minho grinned, his eyes curving into a crescent-moon like shape. He also leaned closer, coping Jisung. ’Yup, but keep going.’

Jisung got flustered by the sudden closeness. He knew he initiated it, but couldn’t really tell what made him do it. He was never this brave while making friends, but Minho felt somehow familiar. He had that rare feeling that you could tell someone anything without regretting it afterwards and cringing at the thought of oversharing, like it is with most people.

Minho leaned back again, crossed his legs and looked at Jisung attentively.

That made Jisung realize that he still hadn’t answer Minho’s question. ‘Umm, so obviously I hated every minute of it, but I did my best to make him happy for once. I’ve always wanted to study music production, or even literature for that matter. Either would do, but I decided to leave it to a side and focus on ‘proper’ studies.’ Said Jisung, using hand gestures of inverted commas.

’But I’ve had enough. Fuck that’, Jisung chuckled, his mood seemingly improving.

Minho faintly smiled. ‘You know what, Jisung? You might feel bad right now, but I want you to know that I’m really proud of you.’

Jisung opened his eyes wide. The way it made him feel when Minho said his name out loud for the first time did not escape his attention, either. ‘…Why?’

‘It was so brave of you', Minho noted. ‘Not just leaving home, because it was mostly just an impulsive side effect. I mean trusting yourself, following your heart. It requires courage, which most people don’t have. And don’t worry, things will work out. I’m no expert, but I can tell you’ve got that special something.’

‘Wow, you sound just like my grandma’. Jisung let out a loud, throaty laugh. Minho smiled at that remark.

The blonde continued. ‘Thank you, though. Just being able to let it all out helped a lot.’

‘I didn’t really do anything, but fair enough.’ Minho shot him a smile. ‘You kinda remind me of Holden Caulfield.’

Jisung processed what the other was saying and couldn’t help but smile.‘…Did you just hit me with a ‘Catcher in the Rye’ reference?’

‘Yup, I just did that’, the brunette couldn’t stop smiling.

Jisung hummed softly. ‘You’re kinda right, though’. His voice grew bubbly. ‘I hope New York treats me better than it treated him, though.’ He giggled.

‘Just you do you and I’m sure it will be fine’. Minho stared at him for a moment, smiling fondly. They both fell silent, but it wasn’t awkward. It was a comfortable type of silence, where they could appreciate each other’s presence without having to try too hard.

‘Hey…’ Suddenly Jisung furrowed his eyebrows, a sudden thought coming to his mind. ‘We’ve been talking for so long, and I still don’t know anything about _you_. Well, apart your fear of hights.’

‘Me?’ Minho bit his cheek. ‘There’s not much to say’, Minho explained, pouting. ’I’ve lived here all my life. Not much variety going on.’ He glanced at Jisung with his dark, solemn eyes. They weren’t necessarily gloomy, just tired.

‘They say it’s happy here.’ Jisung remarked, looking around the poorly-lit landscape of the city.

‘Happiness is figurative’, Minho reasoned. ‘The answer is not that easy. If it was, I’d be the happiest on Earth just by spending all my life in this place.’ His voice sounded breathy, yet still fierce. ‘But I think everyone can find what they need here. A long as they know what they’re looking for.’

Jisung didn’t really think of it like that before; Minho’s enigmatic response made him want to reconsider his former beliefs.

‘Do_ you_ know what you’re looking for?’ Jisung was curious if the other boy spoke from experience or not.

Minho blinked a few times, trying to find an answer; _I guess it’s actually a tic of his,_ Jisung thought. _Cute._

‘More or less, but it’s still not clear-cut. By the way, my story is not the same as yours, but I think there are some similarities.’ Minho spoke in a soothing tone.

‘Hmmm. Okay, uno reverse card’. Jisung gestured as if he was throwing a card on an imaginary table in-between them, and giggled. ‘Now you tell me your story. I want to know some spicy details, come on.’

Minho rolled his eyes, but looking at the amused boy made him crack a smile, too.

‘Hm. I never went to Uni, I just started working. You now how it is, student loans can be horrendous.’ He said with simple directness.

Jisung sighed and nodded.

‘I barely go time left because of work. When I’m done with 9-5, I give dance lessons.’

‘Dancer, huh?’ Jisung raised his eyebrows.

Looking back on it, Jisung noticed his fit-ness right away, when he first saw him walking through the window. Minho was definitely athletic, but did not seem like a typical gym guy. What caught Jisung’s attention the most was the other boy’s thighs. They seemed extremely strong, he could see muscles even through the material of Minho’s ripped black jeans. One does not get these muscles out of nowhere; only through diligence and regular training.

The blonde boy snapped out of his thoughts. _Han Jisung, stop thinking about other people’s thighs, it’s creepy._

Minho seemed to have noticed the boy staring at him for a while but probably just didn’t want to make Jisung embarrassed by pointing it out.

‘Yeah. but I got into it pretty late, in High School.’ He explained. ‘I’m terrible at sports and can’t throw a ball to save my life, so for PE, instead of basketball or football, I signed up for a dance class. It was kind of a life-changing discovery, and I’ve been dancing ever since. I hope one day I’ll be able to do it full time, though. Fingers crossed.’ He said, holding his left hand up and gesturing appropriately.

‘Me too’, murmured the blonde boy.

‘That’s actually how I met Chan.’ Minho explained. ‘A few years ago I needed a good beat for a contest. I contacted him and it just so happened that we got really close in the process.’

Jisung was curious and was about to ask Minho for some details, but a sudden gust of wind made him shiver.

Minho noticed his reaction right away. ‘You’ve got goose bumps. Why aren’t you wearing a jacket or something?’

Jisung hissed. ‘I’m dumb and I didn’t pack any.’

The brunette shook his head, but his face looked rather worried. ‘Jesus. Here, you can wear mine.’ Minho took his leather jacket, which has been lying by his side this whole time, and put it on Jisung’s shoulders.

He leaned back again and eyed him up. ‘You look tiny in my jacket and these huge boots’.

Jisung clenched his jaw at his words.

‘But it’s nothing wrong with that’, Minho quickly corrected himself. ‘It’s actually cute. It suits you well.’

Blonde boy bit his lip, not knowing how to respond. He decided to just ditch the issue and ignore how fast his heart was beating. ‘What about you? Won’t you be cold?’ Jisung look at him with confusion on his face.

‘Don’t worry about me. I’m wearing a turtleneck so it’s much warmer than your shirt, I and I’m still kinda hot from sitting inside for so long.’

It kind of made some sense to Jisung, since the other boy had a hint of red in his cheeks, even though they’d been outside for an hour or so. Actually, was the redness there from the beginning, or it appeared just now? He couldn’t tell.

Jisung stood up for a moment, wanting to put on the jacket properly. It was then when he realized how much his back hurt; he could feel individual lines the railings left on his skin. When he sat back down he didn’t want to make the same mistake again, so he crossed his legs and leaned slightly forward, letting his back rest.

Once the jacket was on Jisung’s body, a certain sweet smell hit his nose right away.

‘Nice perfume.’ Jisung commented, trying to make it sound as nonchalant as possible. ‘Very sweet. Not that typical, manly scent that is so overrated.’

‘Thanks, it’s Fabreeze.’ Minho stated in a casual manner.

Jisung was caught off-guard. His eyes widened and he was not able to spit out a single word, so he just stared blankly at the other boy.

Minho kept quiet for a moment, but eventually smiled sheepishly. ‘I’m joking, by the way.’ He winked at Jisung, clearly proud of himself.

Jisung rolled his eyes. ‘Wow, I actually believed you for a moment.’ He gently hit Minho on the arm, making the other laugh.

‘What’s that for??’, Minho whined and massaged the place of impact acting as if he got seriously hurt. ‘I give you my jacket and that’s how you’re thanking me, I see.’

‘I compliment you and you’re pranking me. I see how it is, Mr Minho.’ Jisung copied Minho’s whiny tone.

Minho pouted and pretended to be mad, but gave him a smug smile a moment later. ‘I can’t deal with you. I’m usually a master of keeping a straight face but somehow you crack me up.’

‘Seems like I’ve got some talents after all.’ Jisung chuckled.

Minho gave him a fond look. ‘So, is it your first time in New York?’

Jisung nodded. ‘Mhm. So far I’m a bit overwhelmed, but I think It’ll get better.’

‘For sure. I feel like you made a perfect choice coming here, actually’, said the dark haired boy in a soft tone. ‘I mean it’s not perfect, the traffic is crazy and you need to watch out for pickpockets, but over the years I’ve noticed a lot of advantages. You don’t need to pretend to be someone you’re not here. it’s one of the charms of big cities. People are quite open-minded, and there is a lot of freedom. Plus, there are so many opportunities, I’m sure Chan will take good care of you.’

Jisung couldn’t help but smile. He kind of wanted to hug Minho, because of how much he actually lifted his spirits, but didn’t want to cross a line. They have only just met, after all.

Suddenly, two people appeared right next to them and opened the window that separated them from the party. It was a tall, dark haired boy and a short, pretty girl. Minho seemed to recognise them right away.

‘Oh, what’s up guys?’ He asked, looking slightly confused.

The girl seemed rather impatient. She looked at her wrist watch and back at him. ‘We see that you’re, busy but it’s already one a.m.’

‘Shit’, Minho cursed. ‘I completely lost track of time. Jisung, I gotta go. See you around, okay?’ He jabbered in a rush, not waiting for the other to reply.

‘Umm, sure.’ Jisung muttered under his breath, since all three of them were gone in a matter of seconds.

_What even was that?_ he thought, confused by the unexpected appearance of those two, and the even more sudden disappearance of Minho. Jisung felt almost sad that the other left so abruptly, without even properly saying goodbye.

Jisung reached out to the pocket of his jeans, searching for his cigarettes, when he noticed something, even though he probably should have realized it earlier.

_The jacket. _

Minho must have been in a real hurry since he forgot to take it back, and Jisung had been too confused to process what was even happening at the time to give it back to him.

He decided to check the pockets, and made another discovery- Minho’s cell phone. _That boy’s a mess, how did he not realized he left his phone there?_

Jisung stared at the device for a moment, not sure what to do. Finally he got up and decided to ask Chan.

It was surprisingly easy to find him; he stood with his back leaning against the wall, talking to some people. Jisung walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Can we talk for a moment?’

Chan nodded and excused himself from his friends and walked towards Jisung. His outfit did not escape the host’s attention. ‘Are you wearing Minho’s jacket?’ He shoot Jisung a meaningful look and smirked.

‘Not important right now’, the blonde boy felt his ears heating up and decided not to dwell on the issue. ‘He forgot his phone, what should I do?’

Chan shrugged his shoulders, the sheepish smile not leaving his face. ‘I dunno, maybe text Changbin. They live together so he’s gonna let him know.’

Jisung sighed, turned around and went on a quest to find a place to sit. After a moment of wandering through the apartment he stumbled upon an empty spot on a couch. He hesitated, but eventually unlocked Minho’s phone.

His phone background…. were cats. Three cats, to be specific. It wasn’t one of those default wallpapers, more like a real, home-made photo. _Does Minho have three cats??_ The boy seemed more and more interesting to him as the time passed by.

Jisung decided to just do as he was told and opened up messages. As predicted, the first conversation from the top was called ‘Binnie Changbinnie’, with a bunch of heart emojis.

He didn’t want to read other people’s texts, but he accidentally saw the last message. It said _‘love you too, dumbass’, sent by Minho._

It made him feel weird. He couldn’t explain why, but Jisung suddenly wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

He started crafting a text to this Changbin guy. He didn’t want to make it sound pretentious or too ambiguous, so he needed to state things as clear as possible. After making a few adjustments and proofreading the message, he settled for a final version and hit send.

_‘hello this is jisung, minho borrowed me his jacket (in a platonic way, don’t get me wrong). I forgot to give it back to him and now I found a phone in his pocket, can you let him know I have it? He can come pick it up tomorrow.’ _delivered, 01:21 AM

Jisung immediately got nervous, as one does when sending a risky text, but he didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

_‘(cry-laughing emoji) will do, mr in-a-platonic-way’ _01:22 AM

He couldn’t help but to do an eye-roll when he read the message. Who was this guy? Jisung didn’t want to be nosy, but… were they perhaps _a thing? _He didn’t have anything against the idea, of course, but something just didn’t feel right to him. Usually he didn’t want to pry in other people’s relationships, but for some reason he hoped he wasn’t right about this.

Jisung was tired. He couldn’t wait for the party to be over.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2: Trip

‘Have you seen my phone?’ Chan groaned across the room.

Jisung put down the book he was reading and looked at the other boy. He’d been already awake for a few hours at that point and even ate breakfast, while Chan had barely managed to open his eyes. Jisung sat up to sip his coffee, laid back down and finally answered. ‘Nope. Can’t I just call you? We’ll find it by following the ringtone.’ He asked with one of his arms supporting the back of his head, holding the book with the other.

He suddenly remembered he had some texts and missed calls waiting for him, too, but he still didn’t feel like checking them. Maybe deep down he wanted to make his mother worry about him for a bit more.

Chan sighed. ‘I put it on airplane mode yesterday. Great.’ He walked around the living room in shorts and a matching tank top, with his messy bed hair complementing the image. Not as messy as the room, though; there were empty bottles everywhere, chips laying around the carpet, drinks spilled all over floor.

‘Maybe I’ll help you clean up this place?’ Jisung suggested, looking around the area. ‘Your phone must be somewhere here, maybe it fell behind some furniture…’

The other shook his head. ‘Nah, don’t worry about it. I booked a cleaning crew to take care of this mess, they should be here around noon-ish. Oh also, they’ll probably make a lot of noise so consider going out for a few hours.’ He plopped down in an armchair across the room, grabbed a bottle of water from a table and gulped it down.

‘Umm, sure. I’ll figure something out. What about you?’

‘Busy. I'm having a meeting with a client in a few hours and in the evening I’m taking my baby girl on a date.’ Chan blushed, a fond smile appearing on his face.

Jisung was happy for him; he remembered Minho mentioning to him how lonely Chan had been for a long time. ‘Good for you, man. What’s her name?’

‘Areum. Suitable name for such a pretty girl’. He smiled subconsciously, as if an image of her popped up in his mind.

‘Damn, someone is whipped’, Jisung teased.

Chan picked up a pillow from the ground and threw it at him. ‘Shut up, like I ain’t know.’

Jisung was glad to see him so happy, but it also didn’t escape his attention how exhausted the other boy looked.

‘Are you sure you can drive, though? You seem to be pretty tired.’ Apart from a visible hangover, Chan seemed generally sleep-deprived. _Does anyone even sleep in New York? First Minho looked so exhausted now him, too… _

‘I’m always tired, don’t worry I’m used to this.’ Chan assured, rubbing his eyes. ‘Hmm, what about you? If you don’t mind me asking, do you perhaps have someone…?’

‘Me?’ Jisung snorted. ‘No. Whose standards would be so low to-‘

The ringing doorbell interrupted Jisung’s sentence.

Chan was not expecting anyone, judging by his surprised expression. ‘What the hell? It’s too early for the cleaning team….Ugh wait, I’ll get the door.’ He stood up and slowly dragged himself to the entrance.

The blonde boy was curious; his gaze followed Chan, who opened the door and let out a confused groan. ‘Ummm, Minho?’

Jisung immediately felt his body stiffening. At the same moment Minho moved slightly to his left so that Chan was no longer it the way and locked eyes with him.

His slightly nervous glance shifted back to Chan. ‘Hey. I, um, was supposed to come pick up my jacket. Did Jisung told you?’

‘Ahh’, Chan uttered and gestured him to come in. ‘Yeah, now I remember. Sorry, yesterday’s kinda a blur’.

Minho smiled and slowly walked into the apartment. He stopped a few metres from the couch Jisung laid on, keeping a safe distance. ‘Hi.’ He waved at him.

Jisung inhaled a sharp breath. ‘Hey’, he blurted out. ‘Sorry for the struggle, you had to come all the way here just because of me…’

The brunette shook his head. His hair today was styled into a comma. ‘It’s okay, I was actually in the neighbourhood, I thought I’d come by and get my stuff while I’m at it.’ He explained.

Jisung didn’t feel much less guilty, but he decided to let go of the issue for now.

‘Ji, where did you put it?’ Chan addressed him directly. Jisung blinked owlishly. ‘Umm, on a hanger in your closet.’

Chan nodded and ventured through the apartment into his bedroom.

Jisung awkwardly smiled at Minho. The brunette was still stood in the middle of the room playing with his fingers, not knowing how to behave. Today he wore a vertical striped shirt in black & mustard, two buttons opened, revealing a delicate, silver necklace. He had a similar pair of black pants on, this time without any holes, and black converse shoes. Slightly overdressed for 11 A.M, but Jisung liked it.

Chan came back carrying the leather jacket and handed it back to its owner. Then he ruffled his jet black, curly hair and plopped back into his armchair. ‘You’re not in a hurry, right?’

Minho looked around, trying to decide where to sit. Jisung noticed that and sat up, making space next to him for the brunette boy.

‘Yeah, I’ve got a day off work.’ He said after he sat down, much closer to Jisung than necessary.

‘Oh, really?’ Chan looked genuinely surprised. ‘Any plans?’

Minho shook his head. ‘Not really. I need to figure something out.’ He drummed his fingers on the side of the couch.

Chan remained silent for a moment. ‘Actually, you and Jisung both’. He fixed his eyes on the blonde boy. ‘You were supposed to head out anyway, right Jisung? I think you just got yourself a guide of the city.’ He winked at him, a shit eating grin appearing on his face.

Jisung was caught off guard, but slowly nodded. ‘Right… Won’t I be a burden to you, though? You surely have better things to do than baby-sitting me…’, he glanced at Minho.

‘Not at all!’, he reassured. ‘We can go out.’

‘Oh.’

‘I mean, Chan, you too.’ Minho seemed flustered.

The boy smiled. ‘Sorry, I’m busy. But you two can go out, you’re getting on with each other just fine.’ Chan smiled suspiciously.

Minho nodded. To Jisung he seemed kind of… relieved?

The brunette turned his eyes to him and gave him an anticipating look.

‘Give me 5 minutes, okay?’ Jisung assured.

Minho nodded. ‘Take your time, I’ll just wait here.’ He turned his head to his friend. ‘What are _you_ up to, Channie?’

Jisung picked up his backpack and headed to the bathroom. He threw all his stuff on Chan’s white, fluffy rug and scratched his head. _What do I wear? _

The bathroom wasn’t that far away, so he could hear their muffled voices from the other room.

‘…I wish I’d had a Chance to met her yesterday.’

‘It’s fine, there will be plenty of other chances for you to see Areum. Don’t you dare to fall for her, though’, threatened jokingly Chan.

‘No worries, I’ve already got my eyes set on someone else.’

Jisung felt his heart drop. Was Minho dating someone_? _ Maybe the guy that Jisung texted the day before?_ I mean, he can do whatever he wants,_ he thought. It just bothered Jisung that everyone apart from him seemed to be good at social interactions. Everyone went out on dates, talked to people, found their soulmates. Hearing things like these made Jisung realize all of that may just not be for him.

He couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation very well, so he just focused on choosing an outfit.

He didn’t have too many options, just a few t-shirts and an extra pair of jeans. He wished he had packed more clothes, but he’d just have to buy some. He could technically borrow something from Chan, but it would most likely look like a parachute on him.

_Ugh, being short sucks._

Jisung figured that you can’t go wrong with a simple white tee, so he quickly threw one on, along with the same black pants from the day before. He looked at himself in the mirror. _I’ll look kinda dumb next to Minho, in his fancy shirt and perfect haircut. Nevermind, I’d look ugly next to him whatever I’d do, so there’s no point even trying._

Jisung brushed his hair and tried to style it but it didn’t really help his case, so he threw on a black cap.

He took his now empty backpack and put in all the necessities: his phone, wallet, smokes and a lighter. He also didn’t forget to take his journal- he had it on him 24/7. It’s pages are filled with scribbles of lyrics or just random thoughts that are worth remembering, Jisung didn’t go anywhere without it.

He hesitated for a moment, but decided to pack his mint green polaroid camera too, just in case. He gave himself one last look in the mirror and walked back to the living room, where Chan and Minho were still talking.

‘… Both of us need a proper break, to be honest’. Chan rubbed his face in a tired manner. ‘Oh, Ji seems to be ready. By the way, the cleaning team should be done around 6 P.M.’

Jisung nodded and walked towards the entrance to put on his doc martens.

Minho stood up, put on his jacket and faced Chan. ‘We can meet in a few days to talk properly. And remember, I want a storytime from your little date.’ He winked at the boy.

‘Likewise.’ Chan shot him a smug smile. Before Minho could protest, the boy stood up and walked both of them to the door. ’Have fun, kids.’

* * *

Jisung looked out of the window of the bus 4419. They sat facing each other, Minho’s eyes glued to his phone.

Jisung didn’t really know if he should break the silence or not, so he just watched the cars passing by and observed the daily lives of New Yorkers.

Minho finally spoke up, gathering Jisung’s attention. ‘Ji, I’m sorry but can we stop by my work real quick? My co-worker just texted me that I forgot to sign some papers…’

‘Um, sure. Where do you work?’

‘At a Mexican restaurant, it’s called Border.’ Minho gave him a lopsided smile.

‘Yikes’, Jisung cringed hearing this kind-of-inappropriate name.

‘Yup, definitely. But it’s located near the city centre, so it’s on our way.’

Jisung tilted his head to the left. ‘What’s _our way_, though?’

Minho bit his cheek. ‘Well, I thought about our conversation from yesterday… I can tell that you need some inspiration right now, so I want to show you some cool places around the town, but not the typical tourist spots.’

Jisung gazed at him owlishly. ‘Hmm, sounds way better than time square and central park.’

Minho nodded. ‘ But first the least cool place ever, my work. It’s our stop, come on!’

* * *

They hopped off the bus and Jisung immediately felt the cold breeze ruining his hair.

‘Same city, but it’s so chilly here compared to Chan’s neighbourhood.’

Minho nodded. ‘Yeah, cause we’re getting closer to the ocean.’

Jisung gasped. ‘Right… I’ve never actually seen an ocean before.’

‘You’ll probably be underwhelmed, it just water. But you’ll see for yourself.’

They walked into one of the narrow alleys in-between red brick buildings.

‘This location is kinda shady.’ Commented Jisung, passing by some suspicious-looking teens hanging out around the dumpsters.

‘Yeahhh, it’s a dealing spot. You didn’t hear that from me, though’, explained Minho, and put his finger to his mouth with a smug smile.

‘Ummm, right, these lips are sealed.’ Jisung didn’t need that information anyway, but it was still unsettling to know these sort of thing happen pretty much in the open.

Minho opened the door for Jisung and let him go first, then followed him inside.

The restaurant looked better from the inside- the interior design was mostly red and black, there was a lot of plants, even a pool table. They walked towards the counter and sat down on stools. Within a moment, a bartender appeared. ‘Hello, how can I- Ohh, it’s you.’

The boy looked rather annoyed to see him, but they still did a friendship handshake. ‘The manager isn’t here so it’s fine, just go sign the thing.’ The ginger-haired boy explained to Minho.

‘God bless, you’re a life-saver. Ji, wait here for a moment, I’ll be right back.’

Jisung nodded and saw Minho disappearing into the staff room.

The freckled bartender fixed his eyes at him. ‘Sooo, I assume you’re Jisung?

The blonde boy got startled. ‘Umm, yeah? How’d you know?’

The bartender scoffed. ‘Minho asked me to cover his shift cause he wanted to go out with you. He’s lucky there’re not many clients today.’

Jisung definitely didn’t expect to hear that. _He… took a day off just for me?_

The other noticed his lost expression and giggled. ‘I’m not saying it just because he’s my friend, but it must’ve been pretty important to him. I mean, it’s literally the first time ever Minho wanted a free day from work. He must really like you I guess, that boy’s a keeper.’ He winked.

‘I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.’ Jisung responded, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but somehow also really flattered.

Minho suddenly appeared next to them. He noticed Jisung’s looking at him in an odd way. ‘Felix, what did you do?’

The bartender laughed. ‘Me? Nothing, we just had a little talk. Jisung’s a nice fella.’

Minho furrowed his eyebrows and slowly turned his head to Jisung. ‘Please don’t believe anything this clown says.’

Felix was about to protest, but Minho cut him off and continued talking to the blonde boy. ‘We have great coffee here. Do you want some?’

Jisung nodded, and Minho turned to an offended-looking Felix. ‘Can you make two unicorns for us?’

The red head rolled his eyes. ‘Ugh, I’ll do it solely for Jisung. You, clown, are lucky he’s here.’ He said, addressing Minho, who sighed.

‘Yeah, yeah. Thanks.’

A few minutes later Felix handed them their orders and they were off to go.

‘How is it?’ Minho asked, after Jisung took the first sip out of his unicorn drink.

‘Feels like diabetes in a cup, but it’s delicious. Mmm, I love this strawberry whipped cream on top!’, Jisung jabbered in an excited manner.

‘I knew you were gonna like it’, Minho beamed. ‘Okay, now that we’ve got our coffee, we can start the tour.’

‘Kay, captain. What’s first on our agenda?’

‘So it might sound weird, but not far away from here there’s this giant flee market, where you can find really cheap and rare items. It’s like a five-minute walk from here. Wanna check it out?’

Jisung nodded, and so they went.

* * *

‘Wait a second’, Minho stopped Jisung by grabbing his arm.

The blonde boy didn’t expect the sudden touch so he froze, stopping in place, almost dropping his cup of coffee. ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s nothing, I’ll be back in a moment.’ Minho said, making Jisung sit down on a bench by the sidewalk and run off to one of the shops on the street.

Jisung couldn’t see where exactly he went, so he decided to just wait as he was told. He took off his backpack, opened it and searched for his phone. He hadn’t check it since the morning, would anything change?

He unlocked it.

_Five unread messages: Mom_

_Two missed calls: Mom_

Jisung battled his thoughts. He was about to open the messages, when Minho came back running to him, holding something black in his hands.

‘What is that?’ Jisung asked, putting his phone back to his backpack.

‘Since you don’t have any warm clothes, I got you a hoodie’, said Minho, passing the article of clothing to the blonde boy.

Jisung grabbed it; the material was extremely soft, his hands immediately sank into it. There was one thing he didn’t expect- on the back of the hoodie there was a caption.

‘I ♥️ NY? Are you serious???’, whined Jisung.

Minho, on the other hand, seemed rather amused. ‘Yeah, now you’re a proper New Yorker’, he said, with a shit-eating grin.

Despite Minho’s giggles, Jisung took off his hat and threw the hoodie over his head. It was the cosiest thing he ever wore, it felt like a hug. ‘Now I look like the biggest tourist ever.’ He pouted, putting his hood on. ‘But I was actually getting kinda cold. Thank you.’

Minho smiled. ‘No problem.’ He looked Jisung up and down. ‘It’s one size, but you still look tiny in it. I’m sorry, your platforms don’t really help the case.’

Jisung hit him on the arm and whined. ‘Stop saying I’m tiny!’

‘Hey!’ Minho massaged his arm, just like he did a day before. ‘Do you have a thing for hitting or something?’

‘Do you have a thing for making fun of people’s heights?’, snapped Jisung.

‘No, just yours’, he chuckled. ‘And by the way, being tiny is not bad. It’s your thing, own it’.

Jisung rolled his eyes, but he still found his comment endearing. ‘You’re really something else, Lee Minho.’

‘Lee? How’d you know my surname?’ The brunette raised an eyebrow and looked at him attentively.

Jisung gulped. ‘Umm, I might have googled you last night.’ He noticed Minho’s growing smile so he quickly continued. ’Hey, don’t read too much into it. I just needed to check if you’re not a psycho or something.’

‘Sure thing, Han Jisung.’

That remark made Jisung looked at him with a petty expression. ‘A fellow stalker, huh?’

Minho bit his cheek. ‘Nope. Chan mentioned your full name when we talked while you were changing, I’ve got good memory’

‘Oh.’ Jisung was at a loss for words, so he just broke the eye contact with Minho and pretended to look for something in his backpack.

Minho's phone buzzed so he checked the notfication.

Jisung was grateful that Minho got distracted and dropped the issue of Jisung basically stalking him online.

Minho smirked at his phone but didn’t say anything. It was a bit worrying, but Jisung would rather not know what made him so amused, for his own good.

He eventually locked his phone again, put it back into his pocket. ‘Let’s go, shall we?’

* * *

The market was unlike anything Jisung has ever experienced. It was like a huge garage sale, with hundreds of stalls selling old, vintage things. Mostly furniture, paintings, books, CDs, vinyls, jewellery and all sorts of knick-knacks.

They walked through one of the alleys, looking at the objects for sale, and discussing the more interesting ones.

‘Wow, this must me the most horrendous sofa I’ve ever seen’, said Jisung, looking at a camo green piece of furniture.

‘It really is’, Minho giggled. ‘But it’s designer, so someone will buy it anyway.’

Jisung nodded and sighed. ‘Yay, capitalism.’

‘I like that one’, the brunette pointed to another sofa; a white, cosy-looking one with some lace-y details.

‘Aww, you look so cool but deep down you’re such a softie.’ Jisung teased him.

‘I kinda am.’ Minho confessed in a soothing tone. ‘But at least you think I’m cool. That’s good enough.’ He gave Jisung a cheeky smile, to which the other rolled his yes. ‘I really dig this soft style. I’d probably want to buy it, if we didn’t have a couch at home already.’

_We? So him and Changbin. _Jisung sighed, being reminded of their relationship, still very ambiguous to him.

‘Do you see anything you like?’ Minho asked.

‘Umm, maybe that black, leather one over there’, said Jisung, pointing to the corner of the furniture section. ‘It reminds me of Chan’s studio.’

‘You seem to admire him a lot.’ Said Minho, with a warm smile on his face.

‘It probably sounds weird, but he’s kinda my role model. I mean I know he’s barely older than me, but he has never been afraid, you know? He knew what he wanted to do and he just started doing it, without waiting for anyone’s permission. I hope to be like that one day.’

Minho gave him the same, fond smile as before. ‘You know you’re already kinda like that, right?’

Jisung felt warm inside. Those words meant a lot to him.

‘You two are really similar, actually’, Minho continued. ‘The more we hang out the more I see it. You’re a bit more bratty than him, though.’

Jisung rolled his eyes and was about to hit Minho on the arm, but the other took the opportunity to high-five him, instead.

‘You, mister, are smoother that I thought.’ Jisung nodded his head in admiration.

Minho winked at him. ‘Okay let’s get out of the furniture section before I impulse-buy something I don’t need’, said Minho, before grabbing Jisung by the arm and dragging him to a different section of the market.

* * *

Now it was Jisung, who tagged Minho along to the jewellery stall. The vendor was a pleasant-looking old lady. There was a piece of cardboard hanging at her chair, with a text written in a sharpie. ‘FINAL SALE – retiring next week!’

‘Good Afternoon, boys’. She waved at them and pointed at the sale sign. ‘Everything 50% off! I just want to get rid of all of this.’

They greeted her by bowing and proceeded to look through her products.

They were mostly vintage earrings, bracelets and rings. The last section interested Jisung the most. Before he started trying on different vintage ones, he took off his own rings. ‘Can you hold them for me for a moment? I don’t want them to get mixed up and lost.’

Minho looked at his hands and gasped. ‘Wow, I didn’t notice it earlier. You must really like rings’, he said, as Jisung handed him four of them. ‘They’re safe with me.’

There were dozen of rings displayed in from of Jisung and he liked a lot of them. Unfortunately, his budget was limited, even with the sale. He settled for a big, silver one, with an emerald stone in the middle. He wasn’t really sure if it was a real emerald, but it looked pretty so it didn’t really matter.

‘How is this one?’ Jisung put it on his index finger and showed off his hand for Minho to judge.

‘Pretty. You should get it.’ The brunette declared.

‘I will. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, asking you was just a formality’, Jisung grinned as he handed the money over to the vendor.

Minho rolled his eyes. ‘Jeez, glad I could help.’

When Jisung said goodbye to the old lady and wished her a good day, he turned to Minho and looked at him, waiting patiently.

The brunette looked back at him, visibly confused. Jisung lowered his eyes and set them on Minho’s clenched fist. The boy followed the movement of his eyes and finally realized what the boy wanted from him.

‘Oh, your rings.’ He opened his palm and waited for the blonde boy to get them back.

But, he didn’t. Instead, Jisung put the green ring next to the other four ones on Minho’s palm, all of them silver. Then he stretched his fingers in front of the other boy and looked him in the eyes.

Minho snorted. ‘Should I also drop on one knee in front of you?’

Jisung exhaled and threw his head back. He bit his lip but it was too late- the corner of his lips had already raised, revealing a smile. ‘This isn’t 90 day fiancé. Just put them on.’

Judging by his smirk, Minho definitely noticed Jisung’s slip up . He grabbed his arm with his free hand and guided him to the side, so no passer-by would bump into them.

He eyed the rings and bit his cheek, most likely trying to come up with the composition of them that would look the best on Jisung’s fingers.

Meanwhile the blonde boy stood in place, feeling slightly unsettled for some reason; it wasn’t that visible, but he felt his hands shaking a little more than usual. Suddenly Minho picked up the newest addition to Jisung’s collection, and gently put it on the middle finger of his right hand. ’The prettiest one here, because people need to know you’re fancy when you flip them off.’

Jisung chuckled. ‘Never in my life have I flipped anyone off, but go off, I guess.’

Minho squinted his eyes as if he had a hard time believing him, but he dropped the issue and and proceeded to study the rest of the rings.

He ended up putting a big, knot-like one on his index finger, and two simple ones on his ring finger and pinky.

There was only one left- a big, ornamented one with a black stone, that reminded Jisung of Minho’s eyes. He had a good chance of staring at them the day before on the fire escape, and the image of them got stuck in his mind.

Minho turned the ring around in his fingers. ‘Isn’t that a mood ring?’

Jisung nodded. He knew the whole idea behind it was kinda teenage-girl-ish, but he had a special bond with that ring; he got it from his sister. He felt like the ring represented his adolescence, and it was the only link between his past and the, hopefully different, future.

Minho didn’t say anything, he just grabbed Jisung’s left hand and put it on his ring finger. He watched as the ring began slowly changing colour from onyx-black to a dark red.

Jisung watched him as he took out his phone and began typing, than smiled smugly.

He started reading out loud. ‘Red colour of a mood ring might mean feeling thrilled, excited, passionate, tensed, nervous’, he enumerated. ‘Aww, am I making you nervous?’

Jisung exhaled loudly and dropped his gaze to the ground. ‘This colour system isn’t real, you know, right?’

Minho chuckled and patted Jisung’s head in a comforting manner. ‘There, there, I know it’s impossible to not be affected by my charm, but it’s just me. Relax.’

Jisung raised his right hand and pointed his middle finger at his face.

Minho laughed out loud. ‘Aw, I’m honoured to be your first!’

* * *

They walked over to the knick-knack section of the market, where dozens of vendors laid out their various products. Some vintage, some hand-made, some who-knows-what.

They strolled through the stalls, their arms brushing against each other from time to time.

‘Pins! Let’s see what they’ve got’, Jisung grabbed Minho’s sleeve and dragged his towards a long table in front of them.

They both got immersed in searching through dozens of colourful pins. Jisung found one that made him smile. Without Minho noticing, the blonde boy took out his wallet and bought it.

‘It’s for you’, Jisung handed the newly purchased pin to Minho, who looked at him owlishly.

He smiled when he noticed the design. ‘A cat?’

‘A ginger cat’, Jisung scratched his head. ‘I’ve seen your lock screen. This pin reminded me of one of your cats.’

Minho face lit up. ‘Soon-ie! You’re right, it looks just like her’. His stared at the gift with a fond smile.

‘Note to self, a key to your heart is through cats. Got it.’

Minho giggled and pinned the gift to his shirt. On the left pocket, right where the heart is.

Jisung got an idea. ‘Hold on.’

He took off his backpack and zipped it open, Minho staring at him in confusion. He took out his polaroid camera. ‘Stay like this’, he said, signalling Minho not to move.

Minho raised his eyebrows but didn’t protest.

‘Come a bit closer to me. I want the pin to be visible’, said Jisung, looking at the other boy through the camera lens. ‘Smile.’

Minho listened to Jisung’s advice. The photograph was done, revealing a smiley Minho doing a peace sign. It came out pretty, but it wasn’t surprising. It’s Minho, after all.

‘Can I take one of you?’ The said boy asked all of the sudden.

‘Um, sure?’

Jisung passed him the camera and smiled awkwardly when Minho was about to take a photo.

‘One sec’, Minho walked to Jisung, took of his cap of and ruffled his hair. ‘The cap was creating a shadow, now it’s better.’

Jisung took a step back from Minho and smiled brightly.

The photograph came out and Minho scanned it carefully. ‘I love polaroid pictures. They’re ten times cooler than regular photos.’

‘You can put it in your wallet’, teased Jisung.

Minho chuckled. ‘You, too.’

‘Let’s do it then.’

They both took out their wallets to secure the pictures inside of them. Jisung exhaled deeply. These two days has been a fever dream, he thought, as he was putting a polaroid photo of a guy he just met next to the photo of his sister. Somehow it didn't feel wrong at all. He put the camera back into his backpack and put his cap on. Then he remembered what they were even talking about before.

‘We got a bit off-topic, but what are the names of the other two cats?’, Jisung inquired.

Minho pulled out his phone and unlocked his phone, revealing the picture of the cat family.

‘This is Dori, my youngest’, he explained, pointing at a small, grey cat. ‘And this one, kinda similar to Soon-ie but much less fat, is Doong-ie’, he chuckled.

‘So you’re also a busy father of three.’

He nodded. ‘It’s probably even harder than with actual kids’, he said, and pulled up his sleeves, revealing many old and fresh scratch marks on his lower arms.

‘Jesus’, hissed Jisung, then took Minho’s left arm and slowly moved it around so he could see the full extent of his scars. ‘You must be really dedicated.’

Minho chuckled. ‘Yup. They’re only like that to me, though. I’m sure they’ll like you, no need to worry.’

Jisung got startled by the sudden statement. _Was that an indirect invitation? _ He gulped.

* * *

The next section of the market was the one focused on paintings. They walked through a gallery of impressionistic landscapes, Van Gogh’s style; then famous reproductions, then these abstract-looking sets of dots and lines that Jisung didn’t really get. _But hey, whatever butters your eggroll_, he thought.

They walked passed a girl in a long, burgundy dress and a pretty scarf tied around her head. There was something rather atypical of a girl- she didn’t seem to have any hair.

She stood in front of an easel, holding a brush in one hand, and a paint palette in the other. Judging by her expression she wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, fully immersed in her work.

The painting was still a work in progress, but the colours and an interesting painting technique caught Jisung’s attention. He stopped to observe the fluid movements of her brush sweeping against the canvas and leaving vibrant marks.

The blonde boy could feel Minho’s presence right behind him, looking at the painting from behind Jisung’s shoulder.

She must have noticed someone watching her and turned around, startling Jisung.

‘Oh, sorry, we didn’t want to bother you. Please continue.’ Jisung spluttered, somewhat incoherently.

She smiled and shook her head. ‘You’re not bothering me. What brought you two here? You don’t look like people who usually come to this place.’

Jisung looked around. She might be right; in this section of the market there were mostly fancy-looking people, probably searching for paintings to show off in front of their fancy friends.

‘Actually’, Minho spoke up. ‘I’m showing my friend around the city’, he pointed at Jisung. ‘He’s an artist, so I thought this could be a cool place to get some inspiration.’

Jisung opened his eyes wide and looked at Minho.

‘Oh, that’s awesome. What do you do?’ The girl smiled at the blonde boy, seeming to be very interested in his story.

‘Minho exaggerated a little’, he tapped the brunette on the arm. ‘Artist is too big of a word. I mainly just write lyrics, sometimes compose.’

She nodded, her smile reaching her eyes. ‘There’s no better or worse, it’s the heart you put into it that makes you an artist’, she explained. Her eyes turned to Minho. ‘By the way, haven’t we met before? Your name rings a bell.’

Minho bit his cheek. ‘Hmm, I don’t think we ever talked, but we might have seen each other, I come here quite often. I assume, you do, too?’

She started mixing white and blue paint and added a hint of violet, creating a sky-like colour. ‘A few times a week. I’m trying to save up money to enrol to Art School in the Autumn.’

Both Minho and Jisung gasped in admiration and nodded.

The painting, despite still being in progress, already looked like a masterpiece. Jisung wasn’t an expert, but he remembered this style from his high school days. Pretty, pastel colours. Blurred lines, dream-like mood. Impressionism.

‘Monet who? You’re easily ten times better’, Jisung winked at her, the corner of his lips raising uncontrollably.

She couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Now you are exaggerating, but thank you.’ Having mixed the paint, she began delicately stroking the canvas with her brush, slowly adding the background to the picture.

After a while it wasn’t just Minho and Jisung who stood admiring the painting, as a circle of art lovers began to form around the girl. It reminded Jisung that they should probably go, not wanting to scare off any potential clients.

‘We’ll be on our way’, Said Jisung. ‘Good luck with everything!’

She beamed. ‘Good luck to you, too. There’s plenty of inspiration around you, you just need to look more closely and you’ll definitely find it.’

Jisung smiled and turned to Minho; he caught him staring.

The brunette coughed. ‘Right, let’s head off. Aren’t you hungry?’

And Jisung was, very much so. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

They settled for some street food. Jisung was as indecisive as ever, so Minho took the initiative and choose a stall selling hot dogs. Couldn’t have ended the day with anything more New York-ish than that.

‘Let’s sit down somewhere quiet, I know just the place.’

They walked quietly for a few minutes, eating their food and enjoying the evening view of the ocean. They settled for the furthest bench by the pier, so that they could sit down in peace but to still be able to see the surface of the water glittering in the moonlight. Jisung drawn up his knees and hugged them with his arms; Minho sat a bit stiffly, with one arm stretched behind the back of the bench, the other laying on his thigh.

Jisung found himself lost in the scenery. ‘You lied to me. It’s beautiful here.’

Minho snorted. ‘Yeah, yeah. I guess it’s pretty nice.’

They sat in silence for a while and observed the waves. The wind was slowly dying down, but some movement was still there.

Jisung was the first to speak up. ‘Thank you for today. I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun.’

It was true; spending an entire day with Minho made him feel _normal._ Not like he run away from home just the day before.

‘Me too, but I’m afraid our trip is not over yet.’

Jisung look at him with a questioning gaze. ‘Huh? It’s pretty late, though.’

‘We can continue it tomorrow, if you’re down. I’ve got one more place to show you.’

‘Sure, I’m down.’

‘Great. Just drop by my work tomorrow evening’, concluded Minho.

Jisung lost track of time, but they must have been sitting there for a while. The weather was surprisingly good for May. And well, for New York, apparently.

Minho’s phone started buzzing. He took it out of his pocket and checked the messages.

‘Ugh, Changbin won’t stop spamming me with messages.’

Jisung gulped. At this point he needed to know. ‘Minho.’

The other looked at him with a slightly confused expression. ‘Yeah?’

‘Are you two together?’ Jisung bit his lip, feeling slightly embarrassed having to ask such a question.

Minho raised his eyebrows. ‘Me and Changbin? Of course not. What made you think so?’

‘Oh.’ Jisung exhaled. ‘I mean, his contact name in your phone is ‘binnie changbinnie’? don’t you think it sounds suspicious?’

The brunette chuckled. ‘What, was I supposed to set his contact name as ‘Changbin bro’ to sound like we’re just friends? Or maybe ‘Changbin, my platonic friend?’ He smirked.

Jisung rolled his eyes. ‘Oh come on, let me breathe. I guess I just didn’t want to sound too clingy, in case you two were a thing.’

‘Well we’re not, so you can be clingy all you want.’ Minho shoot him a smug smile.

‘Well, maybe I will.’

‘I hope so’, said Minho. ‘But Ji, is everything fine? Ever since I check my phone you seem a bit off, I’m sorry if I did something wrong…’

‘No, no’, assured Jisung. ‘It’s not about Changbin or not about you, don’t worry.’

‘Than what is it?’

‘Remember how I’ve mentioned my mom texting me? I still haven’t check those. But I think I need to.’

Minho nodded. He put his arm around Jisung and started rubbing soothing circles around his back. Jisung took a deep breath and unlocked his phone.

_Honey please tell us where did you go? We’re so worried about you, just come back home 10:23AM (yesterday)_

_He didn’t mean any of it, you know how he is… he’s your dad, he wants the best for you 5:12 PM (yesterday)_

_Are you at Mark’s house? Or maybe Kevin’s? I’m going to call their moms if you don’t answer 7:54 AM (today)_

_Jisung please answer, I need to know you’re safe 7:59 AM (today)_

_Jisung I love you, we both do 10:25 AM (today)_

Jisung was a bit disappointed. He expected her to be worried, that’s understandable. But clearly she was still missing the point. She was still taking the dad’s side.

_He wants the best for you. _Yeah, right. Not like he just wants a copy of himself. Unfortunately for him, he’s not gonna get it.

He typed out a message.

_I’m fine, just taking a break. I may not be back for a while but don’t worry about me 11:16 PM_

‘How was it?’ There was a noticeable hint of concern present in his voice.

Good? Because his mom cares. Bad? Because he’s still alone in a foreign place with nothing to come back to. Or actually, is he alone?

‘Fine, it’s over with for now. But I need to smoke.’

Jisung began going though his backpack in search for his cigarettes and lighter.

Minho pouted. ‘Have you ever tried quitting?’

Jisung stopped to think. ‘No, actually. I know it’s bad for me, but It’s also kinda therapeutic. It makes dealing with life a bit easier. I can’t think of what could be a strong enough motivation to make me stop.’

Minho fell silent for a moment as Jisung looked for his smokes. When he finally found them and was about to put a cigarette in his mouth, he stopped him. He grabbed it and took away from the confused Jisung.

‘I have an idea.’ He turned to face Jisung and looked him in the eyes. ‘Everytime you feel like smoking, kiss me instead.’

Jisung thought he misheard him. His heart almost skipped a beat; his eyes were on a verge of popping out of his head. ‘…What?’

Minho’s voice became slightly wobbly. ‘I mean, doesn’t that sound like a good enough motivation?’

_Somehow, it did._

Neither of them looked away. Jisung stared at Minho’s face for a few more seconds and lost all his remaining self-control.

He leaned forward and just when his lips were about to touch Minho’s, he closed his eyes. First it was Jisung who initiated it. They both froze for a few seconds, breathing against each other's lips.

Then Minho kissed back.

It was delicate and careful, as if they were scared they would break each other. Minho’s lips were soft, Jisung loved the sensation they gave him.

They stopped, but didn’t back away. Instead, they put their forehead together and stayed like that for a moment.

‘I can see this being a pretty good motivation.’ Jisung spoke softly, almost whispering. ‘I must warn you, though—I smoke quite a lot.’

Minho chuckled; Jisung could feel his warm breath on his cheek. ‘Try me.’

They eventually broke apart, both slightly flushed and smiley. They turned away from each other and faced the ocean. They sat like that for a while, enjoying the sound of the waves beating on the shore.

Minho suddenly decided to grab Jisung’s hand, put it in his lap and started playing with his rings. He rolled them between his fingers, took them off only to put them on again.

Jisung did not expect this evening to turn out like this, definitely not.

But he was so happy.

‘Your mood ring turned purple.’ Minho took out his phone again and read out loud. ‘Purple colour of a mood ring might mean feeling of security, excitment, passion, romance.’

* * *

Jisung couldn't sleep. 

He took out his journal and started writing.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this thank you for sticking around until the end. let me know what you think! 
> 
> uwu


End file.
